Warring States Eagle

At dawn, the dense fog in the spring mountains of Bungo country began to thicken gradually.The rising sun shone on the castle tower of Saiki Home Castle, but the corridor from the longhouse to the assessment room was still very dark.

"Is there no result yet?".

Shimadzu Takahisa's third son, Shimadzu Toshihisa, stepped on the cold tatami mats, came to the evaluation room with a tired face, and asked Taduro Ijuin, who should have just come out of the house.

The latter could only shake his head with a wry smile at Shimadzu Tokuhisa.The fierce battle with Luo's family in the past few days has exhausted Ijuin Tadaro.You know, according to the original agreement of the three families, the army of the Shimadzu family is responsible for attacking the position of the Luo family on the east bank of the Kurusugawa River, while the army of the Ito family is attacking the position on the west bank, and the army of the Saeki family is the same. Divided into two, as the main force of the first-hand formation on the east and west sides.

It was only on the first day of the fierce battle that they truly realized the power of the Luo family's iron cannons and bows and arrows. Both the attack on the east bank and the attack on the west bank were resisted by the Luo family without error..After the temporary truce, the three parties immediately sat together to discuss again, and finally decided to give up the attack on the west bank, leaving only a part of the troops to monitor the movement of the Luo family's army on the west bank, in case the other party sneaked in, and concentrated all the troops of the three parties. Attack the Luo family's east bank position.It's just that even the three parties concentrated their forces to attack with all their strength.But after several days of fierce fighting.The coalition forces didn't even break through the opponent's frontier positions.not only.My own side also suffered heavy losses. Taking the Shimadzu family as an example, the family's fierce generals Uehara Shangjin, Xinna Zhongyao and others died in battle.In particular, Xinna Zhongyao's death in battle had a profound blow to the Shimadzu family.According to the discussion with the lord Takahisa Shimadzu when he came to support the Saeki family, when he arrived at the territory of the Saeki family, Xinna Zhongyao would join forces with Xinna Zhongyuan who was stationed in Umemori Castle to lead Xinna Zhongyao. The fifth team of the Shimadzu family, but it was only after arriving that they learned that Umemori Castle had fallen and the guard Shinna Tadamoto was missing.Now Xinna Zhongyao died in battle again.In this way, the Xinna family, which is an important pillar of the Shimadzu family, will be completely defeated, and the Shimadzu family will lose a pillar of support from now on.As for why the three parties suddenly met overnight last night.Naturally, it was because the defeated army who had just escaped from Matsuo Castle in Hyuga Country yesterday learned the news that Matsuo Castle had been captured by the Luo family.In fact, these defeated troops set off much earlier than the boats sent by Li Huamei of the Luo family to report to Zhengliang, but because the mountain roads that the defeated troops traveled were rough and difficult, while Li Huamei's messengers traveled by water, which was much more convenient, so As a result, Zhengliang, Shimadzu Takahisa and others got the news of the fall of Matsuo Castle almost on the same night.

This news is naturally good news for the Luo family, and Zheng Liang even sent messengers overnight to issue the second round of layout orders to the retainers of the Luo family.But this news was a bolt from the blue for the Shimadzu family, the Saeki family, and the Ito family. What is even more depressing is that because this time all three parties had defeated troops who fled back at the same time, and these defeated troops returned immediately after returning. The news of the fall of Matsuo Castle was passed on to the three parties in the camp. After getting the news, it was too late for Takahisa Shimadzu and others to try to cover up the news, so Takahisa Shimadzu, Yuichi Saeki, Ito Yoshisuke and others had to hold an emergency meeting to discuss how to deal with the impact of the fall of Matsuo Castle.

The three parties were still arguing before Ijuin Tadaro walked out of the evaluation room.As part of the Shimadzu family, Governor Takahisa Shimadzu immediately proposed to immediately retreat back to the Hyuga country. In any case, even if Matsuo Castle has been captured, with the strength of the three parties at this time, it is possible to recapture Matsuo after a quick return. of the city.If Matsuo Castle is regained, it will be a solution to the predicament of the three parties at this time.

Ijuin Tadaro agrees with his lord's proposal very much.If Matsuo City is captured by the Luo family, then my side will be completely surrounded by the Luo family's army from north to south. As for the east and west sides, there are almost continuous mountains and dense forests. Finding the way and getting lost, just the food and the diseases caused by the mosquitoes in the forest can defeat everyone.Even if they found the road by luck, the final place to the east is the sea, which is the world of the Luo family's navy, and behind the continuous mountains and forests to the west is the territory of the Luo family. How could he be the opponent of the Luo family's army that came chasing after hearing the news?

What's more serious is that, according to the news spread by our family in the Luo family's territory, most of the Luo's family's territory has no city walls. In this way, even if they escape into the Luo's family's territory, they will not There is no danger to defend.

Since the east and west roads cannot be chosen, there are only three roads left.

One is to continue to fight fiercely with the Luo family, desperately repel the army led by the Luo family's governor Kyushu Xiongying Luo Shi Zhengliang in the north, and seize part of the new territory from the Luo family, thus gaining a new world.However, judging from the previous fierce battles between the three-party coalition forces, this path is obviously not feasible.At least, in Ijuin Tadaro's opinion, their tripartite coalition forces are definitely not the opponents of the Kyushu Eagles.

Since this path is not desirable, then take the second path.This road is to use the Uro Castle of the Saiki family as a base and stick to it.Confront the Roche family.Just after a little analysis.Ijuin Tadaro quickly rejected this path.Because at this time, the food and other military supplies in the tripartite coalition forces are really limited.After Matsuo Castle, an important logistics support town in the rear, was captured by the Roche family, it meant that the military supplies on his side were reduced day by day.

At least combat preparations such as iron cannon ammunition, bows and arrows can no longer be replenished, and even food will be in crisis.

Why do you say that?

In fact, it was only now that Ijuin Tadaro felt the insidiousness of the Kyushu Eagle Roshi Masara.Before arriving at the territory of the Saeki family, he had always felt very strange after discovering that many villages of the Saeki family along the way were looted and burned by the Luo family.After all, since the Luo family was capable of looting and destroying the Saeki family's territory, why didn't they simply send troops to besiege the city?

Later, when he arrived in Yongcheng and learned that most of the warehouse supplies in the city had been burned, he realized that the Luo family must have done this on purpose.It caused a large number of refugees to use the city, which caused a crisis of materials such as food.But when he later discovered that the Luo family not only destroyed the village and fields during the looting, but also plundered all the supplies and people, which led him to reject this idea.

It wasn't until later that in order to ensure the stability of the Saeki family's territory and the confrontation between the three-party coalition forces and the Luo family's army, the Shimadzu family and the Ito family had to continuously transport a large amount of logistics supplies from the rear, and he thought he really understood the series of looting and destruction by Masahiro Roche. the goal of.Indeed, in order to transport logistics supplies to the Saeki family's territory, the Shimadzu family and the Ito family had to collect supplies from various parts of Satsuma and Hyuga countries to Matsuo Castle, and then transport these materials from Matsuo Castle to the Saeki family's territory in Bungo Country , During this long-distance transportation, a lot of manpower and material resources were indeed spent.Indeed, it caused great consumption and pressure to the Shimadzu family and the Ito family.

It's just this cognition, now.But it was overthrown by Ijuin Tadaro himself again.Only now did he really realize that under the circumstances that most of the general citizens were plundered and most of the local fields and villages were destroyed, if he planned to rely on the remaining territory of the Saeki family in Haibu County, Bungo Country to support the three parties The confrontation between the coalition forces and the Luo family is completely impossible.After all, the lack of a large number of people and the damage to the crops in the fields will inevitably lead to a large reduction in this year's autumn harvest. So how to support the three-party coalition forces to confront the Luo family's army locally under such circumstances?

So how about taking out part of the grain reserves as emergency spring plowing?Let alone whether the warriors and soldiers of the three parties are willing to do so when there are not many food reserves, the problem of insufficient manpower due to the lack of leaders is enough for everyone to have a headache.

If soldiers were allowed to participate in farming, not only would it cause dissatisfaction among the soldiers, but the Luo family would inevitably send troops to harass them.Although the Luo family intends to stick to the positions on both sides of the Kurusu River at this time, once they know that their side is organizing a large number of soldiers for spring farming, then the Luo family will definitely go out.One must know that the field strength of the Luo family's army is very famous.

Even if the Luo family didn't come to harass them, the spring plowing would be completed smoothly.But from the end of spring plowing to autumn harvest, there is at least half a year.With the current food reserves of the three-party coalition forces, is it really enough to support the autumn harvest in the confrontation with the Luo family?

Thinking of this, Ijuin Tadaro naturally directly rejected this road of sticking to the same place.Since there is no way to choose the road ahead, the only way left is to return to Hyuga country directly from the mountain road.Taking a step back, even if Matsuo Castle cannot be regained again, it is still a chance to break through the Luo family's interception in Matsuo Castle and enter the central area of ​​Hyuga Kingdom.

It's just that the only way out seems so obvious, but during the meeting last night, Saeki's family supervisor, Saeki Yoshikado, did not express his position.

In fact, the attitude of the Saeki family is understandable to Ijuin Tadaro.After all, once they retreat, the Saeki family will hand over the territory of the Bungo country to the Luo family. From then on, the Saeki family will become a rootless duckling, and will become the host of the Ito family or the Shimadzu family.For this point, Saeki Yoshikado must have been unable to make a decision for a while.After all, even if he himself agreed, the retainers under his command might not agree either.

It's just that Saeki Yoshito didn't express his position, and the governor of the Ito family even hesitated, which made Ijuin Taduro feel puzzled.In any case, Matsuo Castle, which now belongs to the Ito family, has been captured by the Luo family.Moreover, the Luo family has already invaded the territory of the Ito family in Hyuga country.This is for the Ito family.It's definitely bad news, and the Ito family should be the most anxious?

And just when Ijuin Tadaro was puzzled, Ito Yoshisuke finally said the reason: "If I wait to withdraw, what should happen once the Luo family's army pursues from behind?"

After everyone heard the words, they finally understood what Yoshisuke Ito meant.If the Luo's family immediately pursued them from behind after they found out that they had withdrawn and entered the mountain path, then they would really be in a dangerous situation of being flanked by the Luo's family in the mountain path.

If it was in the past, when Matsuo Castle was still in the hands.Naturally, the three-party coalition forces are not afraid of the Luo family's pursuit, and are even willing to slowly circle the Luo family by virtue of the terrain of the mountain road. But now everyone is rushing to pass the mountain road, and then attack Matsuo City. If they are bitten by the Luo family like this The tail pursuit not only slowed down the marching speed, but even caused the Luo family defenders in Matsuo City to prepare, which led to them being blocked in the mountain road.

So when Ijuin Tadaro came out of the evaluation room, everyone was still discussing how to deal with the possible follow-up of the Luo family.And when Shimadzu Tokuhisa asked about the meeting, Ijuin Tadaro naturally could only say that the meeting had not ended yet.

certainly.To Ijuin Taduro's surprise, Ijuin Tadaro and Shimadzu Tokuro waited outside for a while.The door of the evaluation room was pushed open, and the governor Shimadzu Takahisa came out first, and immediately ordered after seeing Ijuin Tadaro and Shimadzu Suihisa: "Send the order and retreat immediately."

"It seems that an agreement has been reached." Seeing this scene, Ijiin Zhonglang couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief.But soon, he became curious about the content of the agreement.And Shimazu Takahisa did not make Ijuin Tadaro wait for a long time, and directly told him the content of the agreement.

It turned out that after Ito Yoshisuke proposed that the Luo family might follow and pursue him, he actually agreed to the decision of the family governor Takahisa Shimadzu to retreat immediately.The rest is just how to avoid being followed by the Luo family's army.

After some deliberation, it was finally decided that Saeki Shintada of the Saeki family would lead a part of the Ito family's army to stay behind and be responsible for blocking the Luo family's army, thus buying time for the rest of the people to retreat.As the retreating party, everyone from the Shimadzu family and the Ito family will evacuate, and from the Saeki family, Saeki Yoshika will also lead some of the Saeki family retainers to leave.

In exchange, in addition to keeping all the local citizens and some of the Saeki family's retainers and soldiers, the tripartite coalition forces will also leave half of the reserve supplies to support Saeki Zhenchu's resistance to the Luo family's army.At the same time, after Yoshikazu Saeki's team safely arrives at the territory of the Ito family in Hinata, Yoshisuke Ito will present a piece of land to the Saeki family as a foothold.At the same time, the Shimadzu family will stay part of the army in the newly acquired territory of the Saiki family to assist the Saiki family in accepting the new territory and resisting the attack from the Luo family's army on the border.

Moreover, both the Ito family and the Shimadzu family will continue to provide supplies and military support to the Saiki family in the future to jointly fight against the Luo family.Once Saiki Yoshito dies in battle, the territory of the Saiki family will also be inherited by Saeki Yoshinobu, the son of Saiki Yoshinobu, who is already in Hyuga Kingdom at that time. .

After reaching an agreement, the three parties immediately prepared to withdraw their troops.Of course, since it was already daytime, in order not to be discovered by the Luo family's army prematurely, the three armies waited until the evening of the day before officially setting off.

"I'm begging you, I must come back alive." At the gate of the city, Saeki Yuikao, who was about to mount his horse and set out to retreat, looked affectionately at Saeki Zhenchu ​​in front of him.

"Please take care, brother." At this moment, the two of them didn't need to say much, and Saeki Zhenchu ​​also responded affectionately.

In this way, after the two parted and watched the three armies gradually go away from the top of the city, Saeki Zhentada immediately gathered all the defenders and young and strong men in the city, and then led them to Kurusukawa Near the blockade.

In order to avoid being discovered by the Luo family, a team of retainers and soldiers who were willing to stay and intercept the mission had already been stationed in that position.As for the team led by Saeki Zhenzhong at this time, most of them are actually unwilling to stay but are forced to stay, and ordinary leaders who don't know it.This time, most of the troops brought by Yoshihiro Saeki when he retreated were the elites of the Saeki family. As for those who stayed to participate in the blocking mission at this time, they were ordinary retainers or locals who usually only enjoy but rarely make contributions. small landowner.

Many people are naturally very dissatisfied with being so ruthlessly abandoned by Saeki Kayaka, and they are likely to incite unsuspecting ordinary citizens to riot together, so just in case, he must bring these people with him. The remaining women and children, the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled, became empty and used the city. Saeki Zhenchu ​​only left some confidants to preside over the city guard and left.